Lake Search

SPRINGFIELD (AP) -- A southwest Missouri man who admitted throwing a five-year-old girl into a lake to terrorize his estranged wife has been sentenced to 70 years in prison. A Greene County judge sentenced Johnnie Jerome Kerns to consecutive terms for five felonies, including kidnapping, child abuse and assault. Kerns was arrested last year after two fishermen pulled the girl from the lake. They had heard a child being thrown from a bridge and then a vehicle speeding off. Kerns pleaded guilty in February to kidnapping the girl from her mother's home and tying a car tire to her before throwing her in the water. The girl is not Kerns' daughter.